Latest The business features
The business features RSS feedAixtron sails through credit jitters Jun 30, 2008
After a year in which the credit crunch took its toll on the global financial markets, deposition equipment vendor Aixtron has maintained its position as the best-performing stock in the compound semiconductor basket.
III-V solar states its performance case Jun 30, 2008
Looking out of the window on the train from Madrid to Seville, you might catch sight of a phalanx of solar panels in a key test plant for compound semiconductor-based energy production. With sites like this becoming increasingly common, the concentrating photovoltaic industry gathered in Madrid to report their systems' latest results at the CPV Today summit, and Andy Extance joined them.
Chip makers chase the Sun as competition hots up Jun 2, 2008
The rush to invest in and develop clean energy technologies has witnessed unprecedented interest in III-V solar cells for concentrating photovoltaics. However, as Michael Hatcher reports from a sunny Key West, huge challenges lie in wait.
Desperately seeking applications... May 27, 2008
The wide-bandgap electronics market is still looking like a lucrative one, but only if you adopt a "glass-half-full" attitude. Michael Hatcher eyeballs the latest reports.
Emerging sectors speed LED recovery Apr 1, 2008
Now much less reliant on mobile phone backlighting, the market for high-brightness LEDs is bouncing back from two years of sluggish growth, writes Michael Hatcher.
Mixed fortunes for latest floaters Mar 17, 2008
Rubicon, Infinera and IPG Photonics are all new to the stock market in the past year. So how did they all perform?
Switching on to new technologies Mar 17, 2008
Vic Steel is looking to keep RFMD ahead of the rest of the GaAs field with MEMS for RF switch integration in handsets and an unexpected foray into photovoltaics. The company's vice-president of corporate R&D shares his game plan with Andy Extance.
Aixtron continues its upward march Dec 10, 2007
An entrenched position in the MOCVD equipment sector and the continued surge in demand for tools from LED manufacturers made Aixtron's stock one of the hottest investments in a tumultuous year on the exchanges.
The analyst: Can silicon displace GaAs in handsets? Dec 10, 2007
Silicon has a history of driving GaAs out of key applications. Could it repeat that trick in handsets?
RFMD bets on multi-market future Dec 3, 2007
Having exploited its number one position in power amplifiers to buy fellow GaAs high-flyer Sirenza, RFMD now has its money firmly on diversification. Andy Extance listens as the company calls the odds.
Emcore's Danzilio basks in the sunshine Nov 12, 2007
Emcore has been winning multimillion dollar contracts for its terrestrial solar cells, modules and systems. Photovoltaics vice-president David Danzilio tells Richard Stevenson about the reasons behind this success and the advances that the company is making in its products for space applications.
Light-emitting diodes hit the centenary milestone Oct 15, 2007
Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim guide us through 100 years of the LED, before predicting where our most promising light source will take us over the next decade.
Winds of change blow through fabs Sep 19, 2007
Major fluctuations in the market shares of the leading handset vendors pose the immediate challenge for power amplifier suppliers, while increased 3G network build-out boosts RFIC sales and suggests that RF Micro Devices' acquisition of Sirenza could be a timely one. Michael Hatcher surveys the latest financial developments.
3S Photonics goes back to its roots Aug 2, 2007
At one corner of the Alcatel-Lucent campus on the outskirts of Paris, change is in the air. Surrounded by farmers tending their crops, 3S Photonics is determined to dominate the resurgent market for submarine optical communication components. Andy Extance reports from rustic Nozay.
Hunter fires missive at 'toxic' rivals Jul 12, 2007
Cree founder and former CEO Neal Hunter left the chip company two years ago and headed up the supply chain with the launch of LED Lighting Fixtures. Richard Stevenson hears his vision for a market dominated by LED-based lighting.
Poor fixtures threaten to jeopardize the illumination potential of LEDs Jun 7, 2007
LED manufacturers are running massive marketing campaigns to woo the illumination market with brighter, lower-cost chips. But this will be in vain if their customers continue to design inefficient fixtures, reports Richard Stevenson.
Yoyo stocks give investors a rough ride Jun 7, 2007
In a bad year for compound semiconductor chip stocks in general, more than half of our portfolio of prominent companies have shed an alarming third of their value. But, reports Michael Hatcher, it wasn't all doom and gloom &ndash and, for a change, the star performer this year was an epitaxial equipment vendor, Germany's Aixtron.
PA proves crucial in WiMAX designs May 3, 2007
Under pressure to get WiMAX products to market, it may be tempting to overlook the power amplifier, but designers who do so risk degrading system links and reducing battery life.
Tunables in fiber-optic 'mini-boom' May 3, 2007
CIR's latest analysis of the future market for optical components predicts that sales of tunable lasers will grow rapidly to reach almost $1 billion by 2012.
Strong growth means TriQuint VP has good reason to be cheerful Apr 5, 2007
Installed as vice-president of TriQuint's handset business unit in July 2006, Tim Dunn has already overseen a rapid upturn in the maker's wafer volumes and product sales.